Scotland are down and out after just two games in World Cup campaign

QUITE clearly, Scottish football needs all the help it can get and maybe even Craig Levein could use a shoulder on which to cry as he reflects on a World Cup campaign which is over before it has properly begun.

SOMEONE get Ivan Lendl on the phone. Tell him there’s an even harder job waiting for him at Hampden.

Quite clearly, Scottish football needs all the help it can get and maybe even Craig Levein could use a shoulder on which to cry as he reflects on a World Cup campaign which is over before it has properly begun.

Last night’s 1-1 draw with Macedonia has done for us. And it might yet do for Levein, who will face a tsunami of hostility after making such a mess of the two home games that were supposed to rocket us towards Rio like a first-serve off Murray’s racquet.

In fact, the crushing concession of another two points began with a chorus of “There’s Only One Andy Murray” from a support that has grown tired of worshipping a football team which has failed them so often.

But this was not Flushing Meadow. This was Flushing Toilet.

And this morning, just four days into a two year quest to make it to Brazil, it’s our dream which has disappeared down the pan already. Or should that be the Pandev?

Levein? It’s hard to know where he goes from here because his credibility has taken a bit of a battering over the last five days and last night he was beginning to look like football’s answer to Miles Maclagan as another victory slipped away from Scotland’s grasp.

It’s just not good enough. And yet, despite all the manager’s big talk of progression, it never promised to be anything other than a long, ugly night.

To say Scotland started badly would be like hinting that our man Murray could use a good shave and haircut. We didn’t just start badly, we opened up with all the style and sophisticated grooming of Group A down and outs.

It was too much to ask of them just to keep the ball for a bit and retain some semblance of shape and structure.

So sluggish and dishevelled were Levein’s players that they made the Macedonians look like world beaters.

Yes, that’s Macedonia. Even Levein didn’t rate them very highly as recently as Monday morning, when he dismissed any suggestion they might give his team a harder time of it than Serbia did.

Which makes you wonder what kind of dossier he was provided with by his crack squad of scouts.

It was clear from early on last night that the Macedonian attack, and skipper Goran Pandev in particular, carried far more of a cutting edge than anything Scotland survived on Saturday.

It was only a matter of time until they sliced Levein’s defence open. Eleven minutes to be exact.

And, although the temptation was to scream for an offside flag when Nikolche Noveski bundled the ball home, the truth is it had been coming.

Levein’s side had no-one to blame but themselves for the mess in which they found themselves.

What Scotland needed now was men with strong wills and even stronger constitutions. Players with the stomach to battle back in the face of such gory sporting adversity. Now where have we seen that before?

Levein didn’t have any Andy Murrays. But he did have a Kenny Miller.

Now there’s a man on whom Scotland have learned to rely. A striker who has defied his own critics and whose hard work and dedication to the job make him worthy of admiration.

Miller left Hampden with his head held high on Saturday even though he was caught in the eye of a storm.

Having failed to gobble up what meager morsels came his way, Scotland’s fans, as one, demanded he be removed and replaced by Jordan Rhodes but not even this rather brutal public hatchet job could dent his confidence or his commitment to the cause.

There is some inner spirit about this man which drags him back into the firing line ready for the next chance.

And, mercifully, the one that arrived at his feet three minutes before half time was harder to miss than to score thanks to excellent set-up work from James Morrison and Jamie Mackie.

Had it not been for this unexpected breakthrough the throaty volley of jeers and catcalls which greeted the half time whistle would have been far louder.

Miller’s goal hauled Levein’s men level, but it fooled no-one. Scotland were right up to their necks in it.

And the mood was to grow darker as the Balkans started the second half looking the more likely to score.

There were times when McGregor was all that was standing between us all and another abject humiliation.

Levein sent for Rhodes earlier this time but not before the Mount Florida end had booed his first change, which saw Charlie Adam on for Miller.

“We want a striker” they roared but not even Rhodes could get Scotland out of this hole.

There would be no fairytale. Not on this night.

This was not New York. It was not even a new beginning.

It was the same old sorry story of footballing failure and it looks set to haunt us all for some time to come.